Echoes of The Heart
by Meydral Skirata
Summary: When a mission to stop a Seperatist plot goes horribly wrong members of the 501st legion look to a former member of the Republic army for help. But how will the consequences of returning to the war effort affect this Mandalorian, and will it carry on to affect the troopers?


**Planet Vultar **

_Really! This couldn't get much worse, could it? _

_Kriffin strait it could!_

Fives ducked behind the rock again and managed to avoid a bolt to the head.

The whole squads kriffin plan had all gone to _haran_. Everything was going smoothly. The General had moved up the front of the clanker squad while him and a few brothers flanked the sides. Everything had worked out until these tanks showed up, now they were practically sitting nunas. These tanks had rough armor, and with so few of them here it was difficult to dislodge them.

The general threw himself next to Fives. His rapid panting indicated he was a bit of at a loss of what to do.

Serving with General Skywalker for as long as Fives had, as well as other clones, the trooper had figured out how to indicate what the general was thinking just with body language. It was an adaptive trait used with identifying certain brothers in a sea of identical faces, and Fives was just naturally curious.

It made him a little uncomfortable that the general didn't really know what to do in this situation, but he kept his guard up. This wasn't over yet.

"Fives!" The ARC could make out the sound of Rex's voice through his helmets intercom.

"I read you Captain." He responded.

"Were all cornered on this side. What's the status on your end?"

Fives used his helmet data uplink to locate his fellow brothers. Turns out they were huddled about one-eighth of a mile away from his and the general's position. Fives could also see that they had major resistance upon them.

"We're being overwhelmed on this end. They got all escape routes blocked off. No way were getting out of this." The soldier looked upon his general. For now he stood and deflected a few blaster bolts using his lightsaber, but by the barrage of fire coming his way Fives believed it wouldn't be long before the general was just too overwhelmed. They had to get out of there, fast. "I suggest we retreat." He spoke to Rex's end. "We just can't hold them off any longer."

A pause from the other side was all that came through at first. "Confirm it with the general first, then send us the coordinates."

"Yes sir!" Fives waited till the general finally squatted beside him, which wasn't long, to reveal the idea. "General!" He shouted over the blaster fire. "The squad on the other end is being overwhelmed sir. Were not gonna last much longer out here! There's a field a few clicks to the southeast of here, it's got enough tall shrubs we might be able to lose them."

The general didn't even seem to think for a moment. "It's our best shot. Tell the others to fall back."

The general shot to his feet and then Fives followed suit.

"Captain!" The ARC shouted as he ran. "We're falling back. I'm relaying the coordinates now." With just a few movements of his eyes Fives was able to relay fall back position with no trouble.

"We'll rendezvous when we get there." Rex responded over the intercom. Then it was silent.

The trooper wasn't thinking, he just ran. It was an important lesson learned in training. When running, don't look back, keep focused and just run. Occasionally, Fives had to dodge a blast bolt or shoot back, but other than that he only focused on following the general to the field.

**Homestead of Tasha Ontereras**

At first Tasha thought it was the sound of her four varactyls rousing that had woken her, but after listening more carefully she could definitely tell it was not the varactyls.

Fearing that this was something dangerous the young Mando warrior quickly rose from her bed and got into her armor. As she made her way to her prized weapons stash she checked in on her young daughter. Thankfully she was still asleep, which gave Tasha a good window to check this out.

The merc walked passed the kitchen into a spare room. In it was a cabinet with a code lock that only she knew. Inputting the code, Tasha opened the doors and revealed her many weapons.

Not wanting to take chances she decided to pick up her A280 rifle, which was her best and favorite gun. However, she also picked up her two DX-13 blaster pistols. In an unknowing situation like this one could never be too careful.

Fully equipped in record time Tasha ran out of her house and locked her door. If there was any danger it would at least slow whoever it was from finding her daughter.

The wardior took up position in the tall grasses beside her homestead. Using the movements of her eyes she switched her hud view to thermal and surveyed the woods in the distance. The range wasn't too far, but she would at least be able to pick up anything within two miles away.

At first glance her hud's 360 degree view didn't pick up anything, but then she spotted a hot spot to the northwest of her. Two actually, whatever they were they were moving fast.

Now in full defense mode, Tasha switched off her thermal vision and pulled out her rifle. Her scope had a farther view than her hud, and she would be able to get an actual identification of whatever the hot spots were.

She had the rifle in position against her shoulder. Now she worked to set the scope. At last she could see what it was.

A clone trooper!

The Mando was more than taken back to see a Republic soldier all the way out here. But that wasn't the only thing. Behind him she could at least make out over fifty battle droids, and at least three tanks. Which explained the noise.

Seeing the clone trooper in trouble sparked a familiar feeling in the long time mercenary that she hadn't felt in a long time. Like what she felt before returning to her home so many months ago. _Has it really been that long? Osik! _

Tasha wanted to help him. This, however was going to require some more artillery.

**One mile out from the field **

Fives was getting worn out. He and the general had run for nearly a mile now, and no matter how hard they tried the tinnies were not backing off. This was too the point of being ridiculous.

His legs were starting to ache, but he took pain as motivation. Motivation to stay alive and fight another day.

"Keep moving!" The general started. "We're almost there!"

With the field now in view Fives thought they might actually make it. Until he heard the general's cry of pain.

He could make out the general's body a few feet away. A cold sweat washed over him as he ran to the limp body.

"General!" He shouted, the worry clear in his voice.

"I'm alright." The general thankfully responded. "I got hit in my leg."

Fives examined the wound. It was a direct hit to the thigh. Any more towards the center though and it would have hit his femoral artery, which would have been inevitably fatal. Thankfully, it wasn't, so he didn't think the general was in that much danger.

"Not to hasten you sir, but we have to keep moving."

"I know, I know." The general sat up on his elbows and then looked back at the siege upon them. "Cover me, I'll crawl as best I can."

"Yes sir!" Fives initiated a crouch position behind the general and immediately began shooting at the droids. He looked back repeatedly to make sure the general didn't stray too far. Every few feet or so he would back up to keep up with the general.

Things definitely were not looking good now. Suddenly Fives began to think that this may actually be it for them. They fought all the way up to now. At least if this was their time they would go down fighting.

"Captain!" Fives shouted over the intercom.

"I read you Fives." His brother's voice responded.

"Change of plans. I need you and the others to regroup at my position, the general has been injured."

"We'll head their now. We're only about fifteen yards away."

The ARC cut his com and realigned his focus to the fighting. He looked back again, and then backed up to keep up with the general.

Thoughts of his original squad, Domino Squad, began to fill his mind. His closest, truest brothers. Echo most of all. If this was it for him, he wanted to think of them. It was hard to imagine that after all this time he was the last standing member of the Dominos. Now, if it came down to the end, he would finally be reunited with all of his brothers.

His hud's extended view port allowed Fives to see the rest of his group before they came into eye shot. Rex was the first to show up. He fell into crouch next to Fives.

"Kix!" Rex shouted. "Take care of the general!"

Kix went and crouched next to the general. The others;Tup, Jesse, Hardcase, and Smiles, fell into crouch with Rex and Fives.

Because Fives was an ARC he had more advanced equipment than just the regular trooper. Unfortunately, this meant he could see things before others could with his advanced hud display.

"Everybody fan out!" Fives shouted. A tank was taking aim at them and preparing to fire. "Go! Go!"

Fives, Tup, Smiles, Hardcase, and Rex were the only ones who managed to get to a safe distance. Kix and Jesse unfortunately were trying to get the general to the safest spot, and were unaware that they were in complete view of the tank.

"Jesse! Kix! Get down!" Rex tried to tell them. Too late. The tank fired, and the men watched as all three of their comrades scattered aimlessly from the blast.

Fives was more than grateful when he saw on his hud that all three of them had survived, but he was unaware of how injured they were. They needed urgent care to asses their situations, but Kix was the only medic they had with them.

The trooper tried to get out there and help them, but was stopped by Rex's hand on his shoulder.

"Fives, you go out there they'll be aiming at you to. That will only make them and us more vulnerable."

The ARC didn't want to admit it to himself, but the Captain was right. The best they could do now was defend theirselves as best they could from their position.

So he went crazy. The whole group let out fire on any droid they saw. But one predicament just seemed to lead to another.

Smiles was the first one to run out of ammo. He managed to Hardcase's attention, but even he had no ammo to spare. Next it was Tup, Rex, and one of Fives' hand guns ran out of ammo.

Fives sat against the boulder he was covering from, he tried desperately to calm his rapid breathing.

This is it! He thought. I'm not making out of this one.

Fives fired the final shots from his other blaster, and he had no other gear left.

He looked at the three bodies scattered about, and then to his other brothers. He didn't know what to do in his final moments except think of his brothers in Domino. The trooper couldn't believe that after all this time he was finally joining his brothers.

Then he heard something. Another explosion. He thought at first it was one of the tanks firing again, but when he looked the ARC saw it was one of the tanks exploding. But that made no sense. Everyone was out of ammo.

The screech of a varactyl could be heard, and then more explosions of fire littered the droid line.

Fives switched his vision to thermal to figure out who or what it was that was helping them out. He caught sight of the varactyl, and he could see that there was a person riding it.

He switched his thermal off and used his regular hud vision to look for the varactyl rider. He shook stiff at what he saw.

A Mandalorian! Obviously female by her pink armor and smaller build, riding a black varactyl, firing away at the droids and wielding some kind of grenade launcher. Now way it was her that was going out of her way to save them! He thought. But at this point he was too overjoyed to care.

**The Droid Line**

The droids were pretty much taken care of. Tasha's main focus now was the tanks. She had one down, she needed to get the other two.

One was just taking aim at her. Springing into action she yanked Teron, her varactyl, she yanked his reins to the left. He turned at her command, and they went strolling through the bushes, making the tank miss them completely.

Teron halted at his rider's command, and then she dismounted with a full pack of explosives on her back.

Tasha scurried out of the bushes and came up beside one of the tanks. She jumped, pulled out her hand pistol and shot the two droids operating the tank. She jumped in, and used the controls to aim at the other tank. Two blaster bolts to the right places and the tank went up in smoke.

Though Tasha half wanted to save this tank, she had no where to put it, and she ran the risk of more droids finding it. It would have to go.

She left two grenades in the cockpit and then leapt out. She was now a safe distance ahead, and the explosion shook the ground.

Half the area was burning, but the shrubs were small enough that they wouldn't spread far. So, she wasn't worried about it.

Her hud alerted her something was behind her. She whipped around, and the clone that she had spotted running toward her farm was aiming a blaster right at her. "Whoa! Whoa!" She threw her hands above her head and backed up a few paces. "Easy!"

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"I noticed you were in trouble so I decided to help." Tasha cautiously lowered her arms, and that also made the clone, thankfully, relax a little bit. His shoulders lost some of their tension.

"How'd you know we were coming this way." He asked.

"I didn't. I live in that field up there. I heard you coming."

The clone looked back at the field, then back to her. She didn't know if he was contemplating trusting her, or if he was doing some other calculations of outcomes in his head, or both. She waited patiently though, and in the end it paid off. He lowered the blaster and relaxed his pose.

"Do you have any injured?" She asked.

"We got two in bad shape, but one I think might be critical." He answered.

"Where are they?" The clone just ran, Tasha figured it was best to simply follow him.

Other clones had gathered together, and there were two charred armored men, and what looked like a Jedi. The Jedi obviously was in bad shape.

"I can get them to my place faster." Tasha said. She whistled, and Teron came charging through the shrubs. Some of the clone's backed away from it. She took the Jedi first and loaded him into her saddle, then the two clones followed. "I'll get them started on some treatment." She sat upon her mount. "You lot just get there when you can."

"Wait a minute!" A different clone with a similar armor build as the one she had met said. "Who are you?"

"Just meet me there!" She waisted no time and kicked Teron into a fast run. speeding away toward her home.

_Boy I am I in for it now._

_**And there's the new version. I think this one is the keeper, I promise.**_

_**First acknowledgement, this story takes place after Umbara, but I loved Hardcase too much to let him die. So he's alive. Second acknowledgement, I only own the Vultar planet, Tasha, and Smiles. The rest belongs to Lucasfilm and Disney.**_

_**Please let me know your thoughts on it, and all my characters' bios are in my profile. Thank you and God Bless!**_


End file.
